When comparing ConsoleZ vs Console2, the Slant community recommends Console2 for most people. In the question“What are the best terminal emulators for Windows?” Console2 is ranked 13th while ConsoleZ is ranked 17th. The most important reason people chose Console2 is:
Console2 comes with multiple window styles out of the box and allows the user to configure fonts, colors, and transparency to their liking.
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Pros
Pro Supports splitting tabs into views
In ConsoleZ, the user can split a tab into different views either horizontally or vertically.
Pro Fullscreen support
ConsoleZ can be opened in fullscreen.
Pro Small, portable installation
Install to OneDrive/Dropbox/Google Drive and your setting will be consistent everywhere.
Pro Supports typographic ligatures
Typographic ligatures occur when there are two or more letters joined as a single glyph, such as "æ".
Pro Easy transition from Console2
Being a fork of Console2, ConsoleZ is fully compatible. It even recognizes existing Console2 config files, making the transition easier.
Pro Input sent to one view can be sent to all
ConsoleZ allows for grouping of open views (panes) so that if an input is sent to one of them, it can be sent to all views grouped with it automatically.
Pro High DPI
This means that the display screen in ConsoleZ is sharp.
Pro Drop-down animation support
ConsoleZ can be used as a drop-down terminal inspired by the famous Quake terminal. Once opened, it can be toggled with a key of the user's choice. This makes it easier to have access to it from any window instead of having to cycle through all open applications.
Pro Localization support
ConsoleZ is available in French, Russian, German, and Japanese.
Pro Zooming with Ctrl-Mouse
The user can easily zoom by simply pressing Ctrl-Mouse.
Pro Windows 7 Jump List makes the user's life easier
Jump List is a useful feature that allows the user to view recent documents in a program that is pinned to the taskbar.
Pro Snippets
Pro Customizable aesthetics
Console2 comes with multiple window styles out of the box and allows the user to configure fonts, colors, and transparency to their liking.
Pro Easy-to-use text selection
Console2's text selection is intuitive and easy to use.
Pro Highly configurable hotkeys
Hotkeys allow the user to easily trigger an action and can be configured to their liking.
Pro Borderless mode minimizes crashes
Borderless windowed mode is basically a fullscreen mode but with a super fast alt tab option and seamless task switching without the risk of crashes or freezes.
Pro Transparency support
Console2 supports transparency. You can adjust how transparent the background should be.
Pro Dynamically resize window
You can change the width and height of the console window without having to reset your session.
Pro Supports fullscreen mode
Console2 supports fullscreen mode, making for greater visibility.
Pro Can run any existing shell
Console2 facilitates the running of CMD, PowerShell, Cygwin, PuTTY, etc.
Pro Free and open source
Console2 is licensed under MPL 1.1/GPL 2.0/LGPL 2.1, making it free and open source.
Pro Tabbed
Console2 allows the user to create tabs for separate instances of the terminal, allowing them to have both multiple shells and multiple instances of the same shell open.
Cons
Con You can't scroll up and down for command history as those keys are bound to the scrollbox
Con No way to open pre-created tabs on startup
If you want to setup a certain number of tabs to automatically run pre-defined scripts in ConsoleZ or Console 2, you can't. You have to open everything manually every time you start the application.
Con Not maintained
The development of Console2 has been abandoned. The latest change was made in 2013.
Con Stopping a script closes the tab
Usually when a script is running and you try to stop it with Ctrl-c, it stops and shows the empty command prompt waiting to get a new command. In Console2 this does not happen: instead the whole tab where the script is running is closed.